The Spirit of
Love - [Segment 2 of 4]  The Second Part - The First Dialogue

T H EF I R S T D I A L
O G U E B E T W E E N

Theogenes,
Eusebius, and Theophilus.

[Love-2.1-1] Theogenes.
DEAR Theophilus, this Gentleman is Eusebius, a
very valuable and worthy Curate in my Neighbourhood; he would not let me wait any longer
for your second Letter of the Spirit of Love, nor be content till I consented to our
making you this Visit. And indeed, we are both on the same Errand and in equal Impatience
to have your full Answer to that Part of my Objection, which you reserved for a second
Letter.

[Love-2.1-2] Theophilus.
My Heart embraces you both with the greatest Affection, and I am much pleased at the
Occasion of your Coming which calls me to the most delightful Subject in the World, to
help both you and myself to rejoice in that adorable Deity whose infinite Being is an
Infinity of mere Love, an unbeginning, never-ceasing, and forever overflowing Ocean of
Meekness, Sweetness, Delight, Blessing, Goodness, Patience, and Mercy, and all this as so
many blessed Streams breaking out of the Abyss of universal Love, Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost, a Triune Infinity of Love and Goodness, for ever and ever giving forth nothing but
the same Gifts of Light and Love, of Blessing and Joy, whether before or after the Fall,
either of Angels or Men.

[Love-2.1-3] Look at all
Nature, through all its Height and Depth, in all its Variety of working Powers; it is what
it is for this only End, that the hidden Riches, the invisible Powers, Blessings, Glory,
and Love of the unsearchable God, may become visible, sensible, and manifest in and by it.

[Love-2.1-4] Look at all
the Variety of Creatures; they are what they are for this only End, that in their infinite
Variety, Degrees, and Capacities, they may be as so many speaking Figures, living Forms of
the manifold Riches and Powers of Nature, as so many Sounds and Voices, Preachers, and
Trumpets, giving Glory and Praise and Thanksgiving to that Deity of Love which gives Life
to all Nature and Creature.

[Love-2.1-5] For every
Creature of unfallen Nature, call it by what name you Will, has its Form, and Power, and
State, and Place in Nature, for no other End, but to open and enjoy, to manifest and
rejoice in some Share of the Love, and Happiness, and Goodness of the Deity, as springing
forth in the boundless Height and Depth of Nature.

[Love-2.1-6] Now this is
the one Will and Work of God in and through all Nature and Creature. From Eternity
to Eternity he can will and intend nothing toward them, in them, or by them, but the Communication
of various Degrees of his own Love, Goodness, and Happiness to them, according to their
State, and Place, and Capacity in Nature. This is Gods unchangeable Disposition
toward the Creature; He can be nothing else but all Goodness toward it, because he can be
nothing toward the Creature but that which he is, and was, and ever shall be in Himself.

[Love-2.1-7] God can no
more begin to have any Wrath, Rage, or Anger in Himself, after Nature and
Creature are in a fallen State, than He could have been infinite Wrath and boundless Rage
everywhere, and from all Eternity. For nothing can begin to be in God, or to be in
a new State in Him; every Thing that is in Him is essential to Him, as inseparable
from Him, as unalterable in Him as the triune Nature of his Deity.

[Love-2.1-8] Theogenes.
Pray, Theophilus, let me ask you, does not Patience and Pity and Mercy
begin to be in God, and only then begin, when the Creature has brought itself into
Misery? They could have no Existence in the Deity before. Why then may not a Wrath and
Anger begin to be in God, when the Creature has rebelled against him, though it
neither had nor could have any Existence in God before?

[Love-2.1-9] Theophilus.
Tis true, Theogenes, that God can only then begin to make known his
Mercy and Patience, when the Creature has lost its Rectitude and Happiness, yet nothing
then begins to be in God or to be found in him, but that which was always in him in the
same infinite State, viz., a Will to all Goodness, and which can will
nothing else. And his Patience and Mercy, which could not show forth themselves till
Nature and Creature had brought forth Misery, were not new Tempers, or the Beginning of
some new Disposition that was not in God before, but only new and occasional
Manifestations of that boundless eternal Will to all Goodness, which always
was in God in the same Height and Depth. The Will to all Goodness, which is God
himself, began to display itself in a new Way when it first gave Birth to
Creatures. The same Will to all Goodness began to manifest itself in another new
Way, when it became Patience and Compassion toward fallen Creatures. But neither of these
Ways are the Beginning of any new Tempers or Qualities in God, but only new and occasional
Manifestations of that true eternal Will to all Goodness, which always was, and always
will be, in the same Fullness of Infinity in God.

[Love-2.1-10] But to
suppose that when the Creature has abused its Power, lost its Happiness and plunged itself
into a Misery, out of which it cannot deliver itself, to suppose that then there begins to
be something in the holy Deity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, that is not of the
Nature and Essence of God, and which was not there before, viz., a Wrath, and Fury,
and vindictive Vengeance, breaking out in Storms of Rage and Resentment because the poor
Creature has brought Misery upon itself, is an Impiety and Absurdity that cannot be enough
abhorred. For nothing can be in God, but that which He is and has from Himself, and
therefore no Wrath can be in the Deity itself, unless God was in Himself, before all
Nature, and from all Eternity, an Infinity of Wrath.

[Love-2.1-11] Why are Love,
Knowledge, Wisdom, and Goodness said to be infinite and eternal in God, capable of no
Increase or Decrease, but always in the same highest State of Existence? Why is his Power
eternal and omnipotent, his Presence not here, or there, but everywhere the same? No
Reason can be assigned, but because nothing that is temporary, limited, or
bounded, can be in God. It is his Nature to be that which He is, and all that He is, in an
infinite, unchangeable Degree, admitting neither higher, nor lower, neither here nor
there, but always, and everywhere, in the same unalterable State of Infinity. If therefore
Wrath, Rage, and Resentment could be in the Deity itself, it must be an unbeginning,
boundless, never-ceasing Wrath, capable of no more, or less, no up or
down, but always existing, always working, and breaking forth in the same Strength,
and everywhere equally burning in the Height and Depth of the abyssal Deity. There is no
medium here; there must be either all or none, either no Possibility of Wrath, or no
Possibility of its having any Bounds. And therefore, if you would not say, that every
Thing that has proceeded, or can, or ever shall proceed from God, are and can be only so
many Effects of his eternal and omnipotent Wrath, which can never cease, or be less than
infinite; if you will not hold this monstrous Blasphemy, you must stick close to the
absolute Impossibility of Wrath having any Existence in God. For nothing can have any
Existence in God, but in the Way and Manner as his Eternity, Infinity, and Omnipotence
have their Existence in him. Have you any Thing to object to this?

[Love-2.1-12] Theogenes.
Indeed, Theophilus, both Eusebius and myself have been from the first fully
satisfied with what has been said of this Matter in the Book of Regeneration, the Appeal,
and the Spirit of Prayer, &c. We find it impossible to think of God as
subject to Wrath, or capable of being inflamed by the Weakness, and Folly, and
Irregularity of the Creature. We find ourselves incapable of thinking any otherwise of
God, than as the one only Good, or, as you express it, an eternal immutable Will
to all Goodness, which can will Nothing else to all Eternity, but to communicate Good,
and Blessing, and Happiness, and Perfection to every Life, according to its Capacity to
receive it.

[Love-2.1-13] Had I an
hundred Lives, I could with more Ease part with them, all by suffering an hundred Deaths,
than give up this lovely idea of God. Nor could I have any Desire of Eternity for myself,
if I had not Hopes, that, by partaking of the Divine Nature, I should be eternally
delivered from the Burden and Power of my own Wrath, and changed into the blessed Freedom
of a Spirit, that is all Love, and a mere Will to Nothing but Goodness. An
Eternity without this, is but an Eternity of Trouble. For I know of no Hell, either here
or hereafter, but the Power and Working of Wrath, nor any Heaven, but where the God of
Love is all in all, and the working Life of all. And therefore, that the holy Deity is all
Love, and Blessing, and Goodness, willing and working only Love and Goodness to every
Thing, as far as it can receive it, is a Truth as deeply grounded in me as the feeling of
my own Existence. I ask you for no Proof of this; my only Difficulty is how to reconcile
this Idea of God to the Letter of Scripture. First, Because the Scripture speaks so
much and so often of the Wrath, and Fury, and vindictive Vengeance of God. Secondly,
Because the whole Nature of our Redemption is so plainly grounded on such a supposed
Degree of Wrath and Vengeance in God, as could not be satisfied, appeased and atoned
by any Thing less than the Death and Sacrifice of the only begotten Son of God.

[Love-2.1-14] Theophilus.
I will do more for you, Theogenes, in this Matter than you seem to expect. I will
not only reconcile the Letter of Scripture with the foregoing Description of God, but will
show you, that every Thing that is said of the Necessity of Christs being the only
possible Satisfaction and Atonement of the vindictive Wrath of God is a full
and absolute Proof that the Wrath of God spoken of never was, nor is, or possibly can be
in God.

[Love-2.1-15] Eusebius.
Oh! Theophilus, you have forced me now to speak, and I cannot contain the Joy that
I feel in this Expectation which you have raised in me. If you can make the Scriptures do
all that which you have promised to Theogenes, I shall be in Paradise before I die.
For to know that Love alone was the Beginning of Nature and Creature, that nothing but
Love encompasses the whole Universe of Things, that the governing Hand that overrules all,
the watchful Eye that sees through all, is nothing but omnipotent and omniscient Love,
using an Infinity of Wisdom, to raise all that is fallen in Nature, to save every
misguided Creature from the miserable Works of its own Hands, and make Happiness and Glory
the perpetual Inheritance of all the Creation is a Reflection that must be quite ravishing
to every intelligent Creature that is sensible of it. Thus to think of God, of Providence,
and Eternity, whilst we are in this Valley and Shadow of Death, is to have a real
Foretaste of the Blessings of the World to come. Pray, therefore, let us hear how the
Letter of Scripture is a Proof of this God of Love.

[Love-2.1-16] Theophilus.
Before I do this, Eusebius, I think it requisite to show you, in a Word or two, the
true Ground and Nature of Wrath in all its Kinds, what it is in itself, whence it has its
Birth, Life, and Manner of Existence. And then you will see with your own Eyes why,
and how, and where Wrath or Rage can, or cannot be. And until you see this
fundamentally in the Nature of things, you cannot be at all qualified to judge of the
Matter in Question, but must only think and speak at random, merely as your Imagination is
led by the Sound of Words. For until we know, in the Nature of the Thing, what Wrath is in
itself, and why, and how it comes into Existence, wherever it is, we cannot
say, where it can enter or where it cannot. Nor can we possibly know what is meant by the Satisfaction,
Appeasement, or Atonement of Wrath in any Being but by knowing how,
and why, and for what Reason Wrath can rise and Work in any Being; and then only
can we know how any Wrath, wherever raised, can be atoned or made to cease.

[Love-2.1-17] Now there are
two Things, both of them visible to your outward Senses, which entirely open the true
Ground and Nature of Wrath, and undeniably show what it is in itself, from
whence it arises, and wherein its Life, and Strength, and Being consist. And these two
Things are, a Tempest in the Elements of this World, and a raging Sore in
the Body of Man, or any other Animal. Now that a Tempest in the Elements is Wrath in the
Elements, and a Sore in the Body of an Animal a Wrath in the State of the Juices of the
Body, is a Matter, I think, that needs no Proof or Explication. Consider, then, how
or why a Tempest arises in the Elements, or an inflamed Sore in the Body, and then
you have the true Ground and Nature of Wrath. Now a Tempest does not, cannot
arise in the Elements whilst they are in their right State, in their just
Mixture or Union with one another. A Sore does not, cannot break forth in the Body,
whilst the Body is altogether in its true State and Temperature of its Juices. Hence you
plainly see, that Wrath has its whole Nature, and only Ground of its
Existence, in and by the Disorder or bad State of the Thing in which it
exists and works. It can have no Place of Existence, no Power of breaking forth, but where
the Thing has lost its proper Perfection, and is not as it ought to be. And
therefore no good Being, that is in its proper State of Goodness, can, whilst it is
in such a State, have any Wrath or Rage in it. And therefore, as a Tempest of any kind in
the Elements, is a sure Proof that the Elements are not in their right State, but under
Disorder, as a raging Sore in the Body is a certain Indication that the Body is impure
and corrupt, and not as it should be; so in whatever Mind, or intelligent Being,
Wrath or Rage works and breaks forth, there, there is Proof enough, that the Mind is in
that same impure, corrupt, and disordered State, as those Elements that
raise a Tempest, and that Body which gives forth an inflamed Sore. And now, Gentlemen,
what think you of a supposed Wrath, or Rage in God? Will you have such Things to be in the
Deity itself as cannot have Place or Existence even in any Creature, until it is become disordered
and impure and has lost its proper State of Goodness?

[Love-2.1-18] Eusebius.
But pray, Theophilus, let me observe, that it does not yet appear to me, that there
is but one Wrath possible to be in Nature and Creature. I grant there is such a
Likeness in the Things you have appealed to, as is sufficient to justify Poets, Orators,
or popular Speakers, in calling a Tempest Wrath, and Wrath a Tempest. But this will not do
in our present Matter; for all that you have said depends upon this, whether, in a
philosophic Strictness in the Nature of the Thing, there can be only one Wrath,
wherever it is, proceeding strictly from the same Ground, and having everywhere the
same Nature. Now if you can prove this Identity or Sameness of Wrath, be it where
it Will, either in an intelligent Mind, the Elements of this World, or the Body of an
Animal, then your Point is absolutely gained, and there can be no Possibility for Wrath to
have any Existence in the Deity. But as Body and Spirit are generally held to be quite
contrary to each other in their most essential Qualities, I do not know how you can
sufficiently prove, that they can only have one Kind of Wrath, or that Wrath must
have one and the same Ground and Nature, whether it be in Body or Spirit.

[Love-2.1-19] Theophilus.
Wrath can have no better or other Ground and Nature in Body, than it has in Spirit,
for this Reason, because it can have no Existence or Manner of working in
the Body, but what it has directly from Spirit. And therefore, in every Wrath that
is visible in any Body whatever, you have a true Manifestation of the Ground and
Nature of Wrath, in whatever Spirit it is. And therefore, as there is but one Ground and
Nature of Wrath in all outward Things, whether they be animate or inanimate, so you have
Proof enough, that so it is with all Wrath in the Spirit or Mind. Because Wrath in any Body
or outward Thing, is nothing else but the inward working of that Spirit,
which manifests itself by an outward Wrath in the Body.

[Love-2.1-20] And what we
call Wrath in the Body, is truly and strictly speaking, the Wrath of the Spirit in the
Body.

[Love-2.1-21] For you are
to observe, that Body begins not from itself, nor is any Thing of itself, but is
all that it is, whether pure or impure, has all that it has, whether of Light or Darkness,
and works all that it works, whether of Good or Evil, merely from Spirit. For
nothing, my Friend, acts in the whole Universe of Things but Spirit alone.
And the State, Condition, and Degree of every Spirit, is only and solely opened by the
State, Form, Condition, and Qualities of the Body that belongs to it. For the Body can
have no Nature, Form, Condition, or Quality but that which the Spirit that brings it
forth, gives to it.

[Love-2.1-22] Was there no eternal,
universal Spirit, there could be no eternal or universal Nature; that is, was
not the Spirit of God everywhere, the Kingdom of Heaven, or the visible Glory of
God, in an outward Majesty of Heaven, could not be everywhere. Now the Kingdom of Heaven
is that to the Deity, which every Body is to the Spirit, which liveth,
worketh, and manifesteth itself in it. But the Kingdom of Heaven is not God, yet all that
it is, and has, and does, is only an outward Manifestation of the Nature, Power, and
Working of the Spirit of God.

[Love-2.1-23] It is thus
with every creaturely Spirit and its Body, which is the Habitation or Seat
of its Power; and as the Spirit is in its Nature, Kind and Degree, whether heavenly,
earthly, or hellish, so is its Body. Were there not creaturely Spirits, there could be no
creaturely Bodies. And the Reason why there are creaturely Bodies of such various Forms,
Shapes, and Powers, is because Spirits come forth from God in various Kinds and Degrees
of Life, each manifesting its own Nature, Power, and Condition, by that Body which
proceeds from it as its own Birth, or the Manifestation of its own Powers.

[Love-2.1-24] Now the
Spirit is not Body, nor is the Body Spirit; they are so essentially distinct, that
they cannot possibly lose their Difference, or be changed into one another; and yet
all that is in the Body is from the Nature, Will, and Working of its Spirit.
There is therefore no possible Room for a Supposition of two Kinds of Wrath, or
that Wrath may have two Natures, the one as it is in Spirit, and the other as it is
in Body; first, because nothing can be wrathful but Spirit, and secondly,
because no Spirit can exert, or manifest Wrath but in and by its Body. The kindling its own
Body is the Spirits only Wrath. And therefore, through the whole Universe
of Things, there is and can be but one possible Ground and Nature of Wrath, whether
it be in the Sore of an animal Body, in a Tempest of the Elements, in the Mind
of a Man, in an Angel, or in Hell.

[Love-2.1-25] Eusebius.
Enough, enough, Theophilus. You have made it sufficiently plain, that Wrath can be
no more in God Himself than Hell can be Heaven. And therefore we ask no more of you, but
only to reconcile this with the Language and Doctrine of the holy Scriptures.

[Love-2.1-26] Theogenes.
You are in too much Haste, Eusebius; it would be better to let Theophilus
proceed further in this Matter. He has told us what Wrath is in itself, be it where it
will; I should be glad to know its one true Original, or how, and where, and why it
could possibly begin to be.

[Love-2.1-27] Theophilus.
To inquire or search into the Origin of Wrath, is the same Thing as to search into the
Origin of Evil and Sin: For Wrath and Evil are but two Words for one and the same Thing.
There is no Evil in any Thing, but the Working of the Spirit of Wrath. And when Wrath is
entirely suppressed, there can be no more Evil, or Misery, or Sin in all Nature and
Creature. This therefore is a firm Truth, that nothing can be capable of Wrath, or be the
Beginning of Wrath, but the Creature, because nothing but the Creature can be the Beginner
of Evil and Sin.

[Love-2.1-28] Again, the
Creature can have no Beginning, or Sensibility of Wrath in itself, but by losing
the living Power, the living Presence, and governing Operation of the Spirit of God within
it; or in other Words, by its losing that heavenly State of Existence in God, and
Influence from Him which it had at its Creation.

[Love-2.1-29] Now no
intelligent Creature, whether Angel or Man, can be good and happy but by
partaking of, or having in itself, a two-fold Life. Hence so much is said in the
Scripture of an inward and outward, an old and a new Man. For there could be no
Foundation for this Distinction, but because every intelligent Creature, created to be
good and happy, must of all Necessity have a two-fold Life in it, or it cannot
possibly be capable of Goodness and Happiness, nor can it possibly lose its Goodness and
Happiness, or feel the least Want of them, but by its breaking the Union of this
two-fold Life in itself. Hence so much is said in the Scripture of the quickening,
raising, and reviving the inward, new Man, of the new Birth from above, of Christ being
formed in us, as the one only Redemption and Salvation of the Soul. Hence also the Fall of
Adam was said to be a Death, that he died the Day of his Sin, though he
lived so many hundred Years after it: it was because his Sin broke the Union of his
two-fold Life and put an End to the heavenly Part of it, and left only one Life,
the Life of this bestial, earthly World in him.

[Love-2.1-30] Now there is,
in the Nature of the Thing, an absolute Necessity of this two-fold Life in every
Creature that is to be good and happy; and the two-fold Life is this, it
must have the Life of Nature, and the Life of God in it. It cannot be a
Creature, and intelligent, but by having the Life and Properties of Nature; that
is, by finding itself to be a Life of various Sensibilities, that hath a Power of Understanding,
Willing, and Desiring: This is its creaturely Life, which, by the
creating Power of God, it hath in and from Nature.

[Love-2.1-31] Now this is
all the Life that is, or can be creaturely, or be a Creatures natural, own
Life; and all this creaturely natural Life, with all its various Powers and Sensibilities,
is only a Life of various Appetites, Hungers, and Wants, and cannot possibly
be any Thing else. God Himself cannot make a Creature to be in itself, or as to its
own Nature, any Thing else but a State of Emptiness, of Want, of Appetite,
&c. He cannot make it to be good and happy, in and from its
natural State: This is as impossible as for God to cease to be the one only Good.
The highest Life, therefore, that is natural and creaturely, can go no higher than this;
it can only be a bare Capacity for Goodness and Happiness, and cannot possibly be a
good and happy Life, but by the Life of God dwelling in, and in Union with it. And this is
the two-fold Life, that of all Necessity must be united in every good and
perfect and happy Creature.

[Love-2.1-32] See here the
greatest of all Demonstrations of the absolute Necessity of the Gospel Redemption and
Salvation, and all proved from the Nature of the Thing. There can be no Goodness and
Happiness for any intelligent Creature, but in and by this two-fold Life; and therefore
the Union of the Divine and human Life, or the Son of God incarnate in Man, to make
Man again a Partaker of the Divine Nature, is the one only possible Salvation for
all the Sons of fallen Adam, that is, of Adam dead to, or fallen from his
first Union with the Divine Life.

[Love-2.1-33] Deism,
therefore, or a Religion of Nature, pretending to make Man good and happy without Christ,
or the Son of God entering into Union with the human Nature, is the greatest of all
Absurdities. It is as contrary to the Nature and Possibilities of Things as for mere Emptiness
to be its own Fullness, mere Hunger to be its own Food, and mere Want to be
its Possession of all Things. For Nature and Creature, without the Christ of God or the
Divine Life in Union with it, is and can be nothing else but this mere Emptiness,
Hunger, and Want of all that which can alone make it good and happy. For God
himself, as I said, cannot make any Creature to be good and happy by any Thing that is in
its own created Nature; and however high and noble any Creature is supposed to be created,
its Height and Nobility can consist in nothing, but its higher Capacity and Fitness to
receive a higher Union with the Divine Life, and also a higher and more wretched Misery,
when left to itself, as is manifest by the hellish State of the fallen Angels. Their high
and exalted Nature was only an enlarged Capacity for the Divine Life; and therefore, when
this Life was lost, their whole created Nature was nothing else but the Height of Rage,
and hellish Distraction.

[Love-2.1-34] A plain
Demonstration, that there can be no Happiness, Blessing, and Goodness for any Creature in
Heaven, or on Earth, but by having, as the Gospel saith, Jesus Christ made unto it, Wisdom,
Righteousness, Sanctification, and Peace with God.

[Love-2.1-35] And the
Reason is this; it is because Goodness and Happiness are absolutely inseparable from God,
and can be nowhere but in God. And on the other Hand, Emptiness, Want, Insufficiency,
&c., are absolutely inseparable from the Creature, as such; its whole Nature
cannot possibly be any Thing else, be it what or where it will, an Angel in Heaven, or a
Man on Earth; it is and must be, in its whole creaturely Nature and Capacity, a
mere Hunger and Emptiness, &c. And therefore all that we know of God, and all
that we know of the Creature, fully proves, that the Life of God in Union with the creaturely
Life (which is the Gospel Salvation) is the one only Possibility of Goodness and
Happiness in any Creature, whether in Heaven or on Earth.

[Love-2.1-36] Hence also it
is enough certain, that this two-fold Life must have been the original State
of every intelligent Creature, at its first coming forth from God. It could not be brought
forth by God, to have only a creaturely Life of Nature, and be left to that; for
that would be creating it under a Necessity of being in Misery, in Want, in Wrath,
and all painful Sensibilities. A Thing more unworthy of God, and more impossible for Him
to do, than to create numberless earthly Animals under a Necessity of being perpetually
pained with Hunger and Thirst, without any Possibility of finding any Thing to eat or to
drink.

[Love-2.1-37] For no
creaturely Life can in itself be any higher, or better, than a State of Want, or a seeking
for something that cannot be found in itself; and therefore, as sure as God is good, as
sure as He would have intelligent Beings live a Life of Goodness and Happiness, so sure it
is, that such Beings must of all Necessity, in their first Existence, have been blessed
with a two-fold Life, viz., the Life of God dwelling in, and united with,
the Life of Nature or created Life.

[Love-2.1-38] Eusebius.
What an important Matter have you here proved, in the Necessity and Certainty of this two-fold
Life in every intelligent Being that is to be good and happy: For this great Truth opens
and asserts the certain and substantial Ground of the spiritual Life, and shows, that all
Salvation is, and can be nothing else, but the Manifestation of the Life of God in
the Soul. How clearly does this give the solid Distinction between inward Holiness, and
all outward, creaturely Practices. All that God has done for Man by any particular
Dispensations, whether by the Law, or the Prophets, by the Scriptures,
or Ordinances of the Church, are only as Helps to a Holiness which they cannot
give, but are only suited to the Death and Darkness of the earthly, creaturely Life, to
turn it from itself, from its own Workings, and awaken in it a Faith and Hope, a Hunger
and Thirst after that first Union with the Life of the Deity, which was lost in the
Fall of the first Father of Mankind.

[Love-2.1-39] How
unreasonable is it, to call perpetual Inspiration Fanaticism and Enthusiasm, when
there cannot be the least Degree of Goodness or Happiness in any intelligent Being,
but what is in its whole Nature, merely and truly the Breathing, the Life,
and the Operation of God in the Life of the Creature? For if Goodness can only be
in God, if it cannot exist separate from Him, if He can only bless and sanctify,
not by a creaturely gift, but by Himself becoming the Blessing and Sanctification
of the Creature, then it is the highest Degree of Blindness, to look for any Goodness and
Happiness from any Thing, but the immediate Indwelling Union, and Operation
of the Deity in the Life of the Creature. Perpetual Inspiration, therefore, is in the
Nature of the Thing as necessary to a Life of Goodness, Holiness, and Happiness, as the
perpetual Respiration of the Air is necessary to Animal Life.

[Love-2.1-40] For the Life
of the Creature, whilst only creaturely, and possessing nothing but itself, is Hell; that
is, it is all Pain and Want and Distress. Now nothing, in the Nature of the
Thing, can make the least Alteration in this creaturely Life, nothing can help it
to be in Light and Love, in Peace and Goodness, but the Union
of God with it, and the Life of God working in it, because nothing but God is Light, and
Love, and heavenly Goodness. And, therefore, where the Life of God is not become the Life
and Goodness of the Creature, there the Creature cannot have the least Degree of Goodness
in it.

[Love-2.1-41] What a
mistake is it, therefore, to confine Inspiration to particular Times and Occasions,
to Prophets and Apostles, and extraordinary Messengers of God, and to call it Enthusiasm,
when the common Christian looks, and trusts to be continuallyled and
inspired by the Spirit of God! For though all are not called to be Prophets or Apostles,
yet all are called to be holy, as He who has called them is holy, to be perfect
as their heavenly Father is perfect, to be like-minded with Christ, to will
only as God wills, to do all to his Honour and Glory, to renounce the Spirit of this
World, to have their Conversation in Heaven, to set their Affections on Things above, to
love God with all their Heart, Soul, and Spirit, and their Neighbour as themselves.

[Love-2.1-42] Behold a Work
as great, as Divine and supernatural, as that of a Prophet and an
Apostle. But to suppose that we ought, and may always be in this Spirit of Holiness, and
yet are not, and ought not to be always moved and led by the Breath and Spirit of God
within us, is to suppose that there is a Holiness and Goodness which comes not from
God; which is no better than supposing that there may be true Prophets and Apostles who
have not their Truth from God.

[Love-2.1-43] Now the
Holiness of the common Christian is not an occasional Thing, that begins and ends,
or is only for such a Time, or Place, or Action, but is the Holiness of that, which
is always alive and stirring in us, namely, of our Thoughts, Wills, Desires,
and Affections. If therefore these are always alive in us, always driving or governing our
Lives, if we can have no Holiness or Goodness, but as this Life of Thought, Will, and
Affection works in us, if we are all called to this inward Holiness and Goodness, then a perpetual,
always-existing Operation of the Spirit of God within us, is absolutely necessary. For
we cannot be inwardly led and governed by a Spirit of Goodness, but by being governed by
the Spirit of God himself. For the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Goodness are not
two Spirits, nor can we be said to have any more of the one, than we have of the other.

[Love-2.1-44] Now if our
Thoughts, Wills, and Affections, need only be now and then holy and good, then, indeed,
the moving and breathing Spirit of God need only now and then govern us. But if our
Thoughts and Affections are to be always holy and good, then the holy and good Spirit of
God is to be always operating, as a Principle of Life within us.

[Love-2.1-45] The Scripture
saith, "We are not sufficient of ourselves to think a good Thought." If so, then
we cannot be chargeable with not thinking, and willing that which is good, but upon this Supposition,
that there is always a supernatural Power within us, ready and able to help us to
the Good which we cannot have from ourselves.

[Love-2.1-46] The
Difference then of a good and a bad Man does not lie in this, that the one wills that
which is good, and the other does not, but solely in this, that the one concurs with the
living inspiring Spirit of God within him and the other resists it, and is and can be only
chargeable with Evil, because he resists it.

[Love-2.1-47] Therefore
whether you consider that which is good or bad in a Man, they equally prove the perpetual
Indwelling and Operation of the Spirit of God within us, since we can only be
bad by resisting, as we are good by yielding to the Spirit of God; both which equally
suppose a perpetual Operation of the Spirit of God within us.

[Love-2.1-48] How firmly
our established Church adheres to this Doctrine of the Necessity of the perpetual
Operation of the Holy Spirit, as the one only Source and Possibility of any Degree of
Divine Light, Wisdom, Virtue, and Goodness in the Soul of Man, how earnestly she wills and
requires all her Members to live in the most open Profession of it, and in the highest
Conformity to it, may be seen by many such Prayers as these, in her common, ordinary,
public Service.

[Love-2.1-49] "O God,
forasmuch as without Thee we are not able to please Thee, grant that thy Holy Spirit may
in all Things direct and rule our Hearts." Again, "We pray Thee, that thy Grace
may ALWAYS prevent and follow us, and make us CONTINUALLY to be given to all good
Works." Again, "Grant to us, Lord, we beseech Thee, the Spirit to think and do
ALWAYS such things as be rightful, that we, who cannot do anything that is good without
Thee, may by Thee be enabled to live according to thy Will." Again, "Because the
Frailty of Man, without Thee cannot but Fall, keep us ever, by thy Help from all Things
hurtful, and lead us to all Things profitable to our Salvation," &c.
Again, "O God, from whom all good Things do come, grant to us thy humble Servants,
that by thy holy inspiration we may think those Things that be good, and by thy merciful
guiding may perform the same." But now the true Ground of all this
Doctrine of the Necessity of the perpetual Guidance and Operation of the Holy Spirit, lies
in what has been said above, of the Necessity of a two-fold Life in every
intelligent Creature that is to be good and happy. For if the creaturely Life, whilst
alone, or left to itself, can only be Want, Misery, and Distress, if it
cannot possibly have any Goodness or Happiness in it, till the Life of God is in Union
with it, as one Life, then every Thing that you read in the Scripture of the Spirit
of God, as the only Principle of Goodness, opens itself to you as a most certain and
blessed Truth, about which you can have no doubt.

[Love-2.1-50] Theophilus.
Let me only add, Eusebius, to what you have said, that from this absolute Necessity
of a two-fold Life, in every Creature, that is, to be good and happy, we may, in a
still greater Clearness see the Certainty of that which we have so often spoken of at
other Times, namely, that the inspoken Word in Paradise, the Bruiser of the
Serpent, the Seed of the Woman, the Immanuel, the holy Jesus (for they all
mean the same Thing) is, and was the only possible Ground of Salvation for fallen Man. For
if the two-fold Life is necessary, and Man could not be restored to Goodness and Happiness
but by the restored Union of this two-fold Life into its first State, then there
was an absolute Necessity in the Nature of the Thing, that every Son of Adam should have
such a Seed of Heaven in the Birth of his Life, as could, by the Mediation
of Christ, be raised into a Birth and Growth of the first perfect Man. This is the one
Original Power of Salvation, without which, no external Dispensation could have done any
Thing towards raising the fallen State of Man. For nothing could be raised, but what there
was to be raised, nor Life be given to any Thing but to that which was capable of Life.
Unless, therefore, there had been a Seed of Life, or a smothered Spark of Heaven in
the Soul of Man, which wanted to come to the Birth, there had been no Possibility for any
Dispensation of God, to bring forth a Birth of Heaven in fallen Man.

[Love-2.1-51] The Faith
of the first Patriarchs could not have been in Being; Moses and the Prophets
had come in vain, had not the Christ of God lain in a State of Hiddenness in every
Son of Man. For Faith, which is a Will and Hunger after God, could not have begun
to be, or have any Life in Man, but because there was something of the Divine Nature existing
and hid in Man. For nothing can have any longing Desire but after its own Likeness,
nor could any Thing be made to Desire God, but that which came from Him, and had the
Nature of Him.

[Love-2.1-52] The whole
mediatorial Office of Christ, from his Birth to his sitting down in Power at the right
Hand of God, was only for this End, to help Man to a Life that was fallen into Death
and Insensibility in him. And therefore his mediatorial Power was to manifest itself by
Way of a new Birth. In the Nature of the Thing nothing else was to be done, and
Christ had no other Way to proceed, and that for this plain Reason, because Life was the
Thing that was lost, and Life, wherever it is, must be raised by a Birth, and every Birth
must, and can only come from its own Seed.

[Love-2.1-53] But if Christ
was to raise a new Life like his own in every Man, then every Man must have had
originally, in the inmost Spirit of his Life, a Seed of Christ, or Christ as a Seed
of Heaven, lying there as in a State of Insensibility or Death, out of which
it could not arise but by the mediatorial Power of Christ, who, as a second Adam,
was to regenerate that Birth of his own Life, which was lost in all the
natural Sons of Adam the first.

[Love-2.1-54] But unless
there was this Seed of Christ, or Spark of Heaven hidden in the Soul, not
the least Beginning of Mans Salvation, or of Christs mediatorial Office could
be made. For what could begin to deny Self, if there was not something in
Man different from Self? What could begin to have Hope and Faith and
Desire of an heavenly Life, if there was not something of Heavenhidden
in his Soul, and lying therein, as in a State of Inactivity and Death, till raised by the
Mediation of Christ into its first Perfection of Life, and set again in its true Dominion
over Flesh and Blood?

[Love-2.1-55] Eusebius.
You have, Theophilus, sufficiently proved the Certainty and Necessity of this
Matter. But I should be glad if you knew how to help me to some more distinct Idea and
Conception of it.

[Love-2.1-56] Theophilus.
An Idea is not the Thing to be here sought for; it would rather hinder, than help your
true Knowledge of it. But perhaps the following Similitude may be of some Use to you.

[Love-2.1-57] The Ten
Commandments, when written by God on Tables of Stone, and given to Man, did not then
first begin to belong to Man; they had their Existence in Man, were born
with him, they lay as a Seed and Power of Goodness, hidden in the
Form and Make of his Soul, and altogether inseparable from it, before they were shown to
Man on Tables of Stone. And when they were shown to Man on Tables of Stone, they
were only an outward Imitation of that which was inwardly in Man, though not legible
because of that Impurity of Flesh and Blood, in which they were drowned and swallowed up.
For the earthly Nature, having overcome the Divinity that was in Man, it gave Commandments
of its own to Man, and required Obedience to all the Lusts of the Flesh, the Lust
of the Eyes, and the Pride of Life.

[Love-2.1-58] Hence it
became necessary, that God should give an outward Knowledge of such Commandments as
were become inwardly unknown, unfelt, and, as it were, shut up in Death in the
Soul.

[Love-2.1-59] But now, had
not all that is in these Commandments been really and antecedently in
the Soul, as its own Birth and Nature, had they not still lain therein,
and, although totally suppressed, yet in such a Seed or Remains, as could be
called forth into their first living State, in vain had the Tables of Stone been given to
Man; and all outward Writing, or Teaching of the Commandments, had been as useless, as so
many Instructions given to Beasts or Stones. If therefore you can conceive,
how all that is good and holy in the Commandments, lay hid as an unfelt,
unactive Power or Seed of Goodness, till called into Sensibility and stirring
by Laws written on Tables of Stone, this may help your Manner of conceiving, and
believing, how Christ as a Seed of Life or Power of Salvation, lies in the
Soul as its unknown, hidden Treasure, till awakened and called forth into Life by
the mediatorial Office and Process of the holy Jesus.

[Love-2.1-60] Again,
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart, with all thy Soul, and with all
thy Strength, and thy Neighbour as thyself." Now these two Precepts, given by the
written Word of God, are an absolute Demonstration of the first original Perfection
of Man, and also a full and invincible Proof, that the same original Perfection is not
quite annihilated, but lies in him as a hidden, suppressed Seed of Goodness,
capable of being raised up to its first Perfection. For had not this Divine Unity,
Purity, and Perfection of Love toward God and Man, been Mans first
natural State of Life, it could have nothing to do with his present State. For had any
other Nature, or Measure, or kind of Love begun in the first Birth of his Life, he could
only have been called to that. For no Creature has, or can have a Call to be above, or act
above its own Nature. Therefore, as sure as Man is called to this Unity, Purity, and
Perfection of Love, so sure is it, that it was, at first, his natural, heavenly State, and
still has its Seed, or Remains within him, as his only Power and Possibility
of rising up to it again. And therefore, all that Man is called to, every Degree of a new
and perfect Life, every future Exaltation and Glory he is to have from the Mediation of
Christ, is a full Proof, that the same Perfection was originally his natural State, and is
still in him in such a Seed or Remains of Existence, as to admit of a
perfect Renewal.

[Love-2.1-61] And thus it
is, that you are to conceive of the holy Jesus, or the Word of God, as the hidden
Treasure of every human Soul, born as a Seed of the Word in the Birth of the
Soul, immured under Flesh and Blood, till as a Day-Star, it arises in our Hearts,
and changes the Son of an earthly Adam into a Son of God.

[Love-2.1-62] And was not
the Word and Spirit of God in us all, antecedent to any Dispensation or written
Word of God, as a real Seed of Life in the Birth of our own Life, we could have no
more Fitness for the Gospel-Redemption, than the Animals of this World, which have nothing
of Heaven in them. And to call us to Love God with all our Hearts, to put on Christ,
to walk according to the Spirit, if these Things had not their real Nature
and Root within us, would be as vain and useless, as to make Rules and Orders how
our Eyes should smell and taste, or our Ears should see.

[Love-2.1-63] Now this
Mystery of an inward Life hidden in Man, as his most precious Treasure, as the
Ground of all that can be great or good in him, and hidden only since his Fall, and which
only can be opened and brought forth in its first Glory by Him to whom all Power in Heaven
and on Earth is given, is a Truth to which almost every Thing in Nature bears full
Witness. Look where you will, nothing appears, or works outwardly in any Creature,
or in any Effect of Nature, but what is all done from its own inward invisible Spirit,
not a Spirit brought into it, but its own inward Spirit, which is an inward
invisible Mystery, till made known, or brought forth by outward Appearances.

[Love-2.1-64] The Sea
neither is, nor can be moved and tossed by any other Wind, than that which hath its Birth,
and Life, and Strength, in and from the Sea itself, as its own Wind. The Sun in the
Firmament gives Growth to every Thing that grows in the Earth, and Life to every Thing
that lives upon it, not by giving or imparting a Life from without, but only by
stirring up in every Thing its own Growth, and its own Life, which lay as in
a Seed or State of Death, till helped to come out of it by the Sun, which,
as an Emblem of the Redeemer of the spiritual World, helps every earthly Thing out of its
own Death into its own highest State of Life.

[Love-2.1-65] That which we
call our Sensations, as seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, and smelling, are
not Things brought into us from without, or given unto us by any external Causes, but are
only so many inborn, secret States of the Soul, which lie in their State of
Hiddenness till they are occasionally awakened, and brought forth into Sensibility by
outward Occurrences. And were they not antecedently in the Soul, as States
and Forms of its own Life, no outward Objects could bring the Soul into a
Sensibility of them. For nothing can have, or be in any State of Sensation, but that which
it is, and hath from itself, as its own Birth. This is as certain as that a Circle hath
only its own Roundness.

[Love-2.1-66] The stinking
Gum gives nothing to the Soul, nor brings any Thing into Sensibility but that which
was before in the Soul; it has only a Fitness to awaken, and stir up that State of
the Soul, which lay dormant before, and which when brought into Sensibility, is
called the Sensation of bad Smelling. And the odoriferous Gum hath likewise but the
same Power, viz., a Fitness to stir up that State of Sensation in the Soul,
which is called its delightful Smelling. But both these Sensations are only internal
States of the Soul, which appear, or disappear, are found, or not found,
just as Occasions bring them into Sensibility.

[Love-2.1-67] Again, the
greatest Artist in Music can add no Sound to his Instrument, nor make it
give forth any other Melody, but that which lieth silently hidden in it, as its own
inward State.

[Love-2.1-68] Look now at
what you will, whether it be animate, or inanimate: All that it is, or has, or can be, it
is and has in and from itself, as its own inward State; and all outward Things can
do no more to it, than the Hand does to the Instrument, make it show forth its own
inward State, either of Harmony or Discord.

[Love-2.1-69] It is
strictly thus with ourselves. Not a Spark of Joy, of Wrath, of Envy,
of Love or Grief, can possibly enter into us from without, or be
caused to be in us by any outward Thing. This is as impossible, as for the
Sound of Metals to be put into a Lump of Clay. And as no Metal can
possibly give forth any other, or higher Sound, than that which is enclosed within it, so
we, however struck, can give forth no other or higher Sound either of Love, Hatred,
Wrath, &c., than that very Degree which lay before shut up within
us.

[Love-2.1-70] The
natural State of our Tempers has Variety of Covers, under which they lie concealed at
Times, both from ourselves and others; but when this or that Accident happens to displace
such or such a Cover, then that which lay hid under it breaks forth. And then we vainly
think, that this or that outward Occasion has not shown us how we are within, but has only
infused or put into us a Wrath, or Grief, or Envy, which is not our
natural State or of our own Growth, or has all that it has from our own inward
State.

[Love-2.1-71] But this is
mere Blindness and Self-Deceit, for it is as impossible for the Mind to have any Grief, or
Wrath, or Joy, but what it has all from its own inward State, as for the Instrument
to give forth any other Harmony, or Discord, but that which is within and from itself.

[Love-2.1-72] Persons,
Things, and outward Occurrences may strike our Instrument improperly, and variously, but
as we are in ourselves, such is our outward Sound, whatever strikes us.

[Love-2.1-73] If our inward
State is the renewed Life of Christ within us, then every Thing and Occasion, let
it be what it will, only makes the same Life to sound forth, and show itself; then
if one Cheek is smitten, we meekly turn the other also. But if Nature is alive and only
under a religious Cover, then every outward Accident that shakes or disturbs this
Cover, gives Leave to that bad State, whether of Grief, or Wrath, or Joy that lay
hid within us, to show forth itself.

[Love-2.1-74] But nothing
at any Time makes the least Show, or Sound outwardly, but only that which lay ready within
us, for an outward Birth, as Occasion should offer.

[Love-2.1-75] What a
miserable Mistake is it therefore, to place religious Goodness in outward Observances, in
Notions, and Opinions, which good and bad Men can equally receive and practise, and to
treat the ready real Power and Operation of an inward Life of God in the Birth of our
Souls as Fanaticism and Enthusiasm, when not only the whole Letter and Spirit of
Scripture, but every Operation in Nature and Creature demonstrates that the Kingdom of
Heaven must be all within us, or it never can possibly belong to us. Goodness,
Piety, and Holiness, can only be ours, as thinking, willing, and desiring are ours, by
being in us, as a Power of Heaven in the Birth and Growth of our own Life.

[Love-2.1-76] And now, Eusebius,
how is the great controversy about Religion and Salvation shortened.

[Love-2.1-77] For since the
one only Work of Christ as your Redeemer is only this, to take from the earthly
Life of Flesh and Blood its usurped Power, and to raise the smothered Spark of Heaven out
of its State of Death, into a powerful governing Life of the whole Man, your one only
Work also under your Redeemer is fully known. And you have the utmost Certainty, what
you are to do, where you are to seek, and in what you are to find
your Salvation. All that you have to do, or can do, is to oppose, resist, and, as
far as you can, to renounce the evil Tempers, and Workings of your own earthly Nature. You
are under the Power of no other Enemy, are held in no other Captivity, and want no other
Deliverance, but from the Power of your own earthly Self. This is the one Murderer
of the Divine Life within you. It is your own Cain that murders your own Abel.
Now every Thing that your earthly Nature does, is under the Influence of Self-will,
Self-love, and Self-seeking, whether it carries you to laudable or blamable
Practices, all is done in the Nature and Spirit of Cain and only helps you to such
Goodness, as when Cain slew his Brother. For every Action and Motion of Self
has the Spirit of Anti-christ and murders the Divine Life within you.

[Love-2.1-78] Judge not
therefore of your Self, by considering how many of those Things you do, which Divines
and Moralists call Virtue and Goodness, nor how much you abstain from those Things,
which they call Sin and Vice.

[Love-2.1-79] But daily and
hourly, in every Step that you take, see to the Spirit that is within you, whether
it be Heaven, or Earth that guides you. And judge every Thing to be Sin and Satan, in
which your earthly Nature, own Love, or Self-seeking has any Share of Life
in you; nor think that any Goodness is brought to Life in you, but so far as it is an actual
Death to the Pride, the Vanity, the Wrath, and selfish Tempers of your fallen, earthly
Life.

[Love-2.1-80] Again, here
you see, where and how you are to seek your Salvation, not in taking up your
traveling Staff, or crossing the Seas to find out a new Luther or a new Calvin,
to clothe yourself with their Opinions. No. The Oracle is at Home, that always
and only speaks the Truth to you, because nothing is your Truth, but that
Good and that Evil which is yours within you. For Salvation or Damnation is no outward
Thing, that is brought into you from without, but is only That which springs up
within you, as the Birth and State of your own Life. What you are in yourself, what is
doing in yourself, is all that can be either your Salvation or Damnation.

[Love-2.1-81] For all that
is our Good and all that is our Evil, has no Place nor Power but within us. Again, nothing
that we do is bad, but for this Reason, because it resists the Power and working of
God within us; and nothing that we do can be good but because it conforms to the
Spirit of God within us. And therefore, as all that can be Good, and all that can
be Evil in us, necessarily supposes a God working within us, you have the utmost
Certainty that God, Salvation, and the Kingdom of Heaven, are nowhere to be sought, or
found, but within you, and that all outward Religion from the Fall of Man to this
Day, is not for itself, but merely for the Sake of an inward and Divine
Life, which was lost when Adam died his first Death in Paradise. And therefore it
may well be said, that Circumcision is nothing, and Uncircumcision is nothing,
because nothing is wanted, and therefore nothing can be available, but the new Creature
called out of its Captivity under the Death and Darkness of Flesh and Blood, into the
Light, Life, and Perfection of its first Creation.

[Love-2.1-82] And thus
also, you have the fullest Proof in what your Salvation precisely consists. Not in
any historic Faith, or Knowledge of any Thing absent or distant from you, not in any
Variety of Restraints, Rules, and Methods of practising Virtues, not in any Formality
of Opinion about Faith and Works, Repentance, Forgiveness of Sins,
or Justification and Sanctification, not in any Truth or Righteousness, that
you can have from yourself, from the best of Men or Books, but wholly and solely in the Life
of God, or Christ of God quickened and born again in you, or in other Words, in
the Restoration and perfect Union of the first two-fold Life in the Humanity.

[Love-2.1-83] Theogenes.
Though all that has passed betwixt you and Eusebius, concerns Matters of the
greatest Moment, yet I must call it a Digression, and quite useless to me. For I have not
the least Doubt about any of these Things you have been asserting. It is visible enough,
that there can be no Medium in this Matter; either Religion must be all spiritual
or all carnal; that is, we must either take up with the Grossness of the Sadducees,
who say there is neither Angel nor Spirit, or with such Purification as the Pharisees
had from their washing of Pots and Vessels, and tithing their Mint and Rue; we must, I
say, either acquiesce in all this Carnality, or we must profess a Religion that is all
Spirit and Life, and merely for the sake of raising up an inward spiritual Life
of Heaven that fell into Death in our first Father.

[Love-2.1-84] I consent
also to every Thing that you have said of the Nature and Origin of Wrath. That it can have
no Place, nor Possibility of Beginning, but solely in the creaturely Nature, nor
even any Possibility of Beginning there, till the Creature has died to, or lost its proper
State of Existence in God; that is, till it has lost that Life, and Blessing, and
Happiness, which it had in and from God at its first Creation.

[Love-2.1-85] But I still
ask, what must I do with all those Scriptures, which not only make God capable of being
provoked to Wrath and Resentment, but frequently inflamed with the highest Degrees of
Rage, Fury, and Vengeance, that can be expressed by Words?

[Love-2.1-86] Theophilus.
I promised, you know, to remove this Difficulty, and will be as good as my Word. But I
must first tell you, that you are in much more Distress about it than you need to be. For
in the little Book of Regeneration, in the Appeal, in the Spirit of
Prayer, &c., which you have read with such entire Approbation, the whole
Matter is cleared up from its true Ground, how Wrath in the Scriptures is ascribed
to God, and yet cannot belong to the Nature of the Deity.

[Love-2.1-87] Thus you are
told in the Appeal, After these two Falls of two orders of Creatures (that is, of
Angels and Man), the Deity itself came to have new and strange Names, new
and unheard of Tempers and Inclinations of Wrath, Fury, and Vengeance ascribed
to it. I call them new, because they began at the Fall; I call them
strange because they were foreign to the Deity, and could not belong to God in
Himself. Thus, God is said to be a consuming Fire. But to whom? To
the fallen Angels and lost Souls. But why, and how, is He so to them? It
is because those Creatures have lost all that they had from God but the Fire of their
Nature, and therefore God can only be found and manifested in them as a
consuming Fire. Now, is it not justly said, that God, who is nothing but infinite Love,
is yet in such Creatures only a consuming Fire? And though God be nothing
but Love, yet they are under the Wrath and Vengeance of God because they
have only that Fire in them which is broken off from the Light and Love of God and
so can know or feel nothing of God but his Fire of Nature in them. As
Creatures, they can have no Life but what they have in and from God; and therefore
that wrathful Life which they have, is truly said to be a Wrath or Fire of God upon
them. And yet it is still strictly true that there is no Wrath in God Himself, that
He is not changed in his Temper toward the Creatures, that he does not cease to be one and
the same infinite Fountain of Goodness, infinitely flowing forth in the
Riches of his Love upon all and every Life. (Now, Sir, mind what follows, as the true
Ground, how Wrath can and cannot be ascribed to God.) God is not changed from Love to
Wrath, but the Creatures have changed their own State in Nature, and so
the God of Nature can only be manifested in them, according to their own State in
Nature. And, N.B., this is the true Ground of rightly understanding all that
is said of the Wrath and Vengeance of God in and upon the Creatures. It is only
in such a Sense, as the Curse of God may be said to be upon them, not becauseany
Thing cursed can be in or come from God, but because they have made
that Life, which they must have in God, to be a mere Curse to themselves.
For every Creature that lives must have its Life in and from God, and therefore
God must be in every Creature. This is as true of Devils, as of holy
Angels. But how is God in them? N.B. Why, only as He is manifested in Nature.
Holy Angels have the Triune Life of God, as manifested in Nature, so manifested
also in them, and therefore God is in them all Love, Goodness, Majesty, and
Glory, and theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

[Love-2.1-88] Devils
have nothing of this Triune Life left in them, but the Fire, or Wrath of eternal
Nature, broken off from all Light and Love; and therefore the Life that they
can have in and from God is only and solely a Life of Wrath, Rage, and
Darkness, and theirs is the Kingdom of Hell.

[Love-2.1-89] And
because this Life, (though all Rage and Darkness), is a Strength and Power of Life,
which they must have in and from God, and which they cannot take out of his Hands,
therefore is their cursed, miserable, wrathful Life, truly and justly
said to be the Curse and Misery, and Wrath, and Vengeance of God upon them, though
God Himself can no more have Curse, Misery, Wrath, and Vengeance than He can
have Mischief, Malice, or any fearful Tremblings in his holy Triune Deity.

[Love-2.1-90] See now, Theogenes,
what little Occasion you had for your present Difficulty. For here, in the above cited
Words, which you have been several Years acquainted with, the true Ground and Reason is
plainly shown you, how and why all the Wrath, Rage, and Curse
that is anywhere stirring in Nature, or breaking forth in any Creature, is and must be in
all Truth called by the Scriptures the Wrath, and Rage, and Vengeance of God, though it be
the greatest of all Impossibilities for Rage and Wrath to be in the Holy Deity itself.

[Love-2.1-91] The
Scriptures therefore are literally true in all that they affirm of the Wrath, &c.,
of God. For is it not as literally true of God, that Hell and Devils are his, as that
Heaven and holy Angels are his? Must not therefore all the Wrath and Rage of the one, be
as truly his Wrath and Rage burning in them, as the Light and Joy and Glory of the other,
is only his Goodness opened and manifested in them, according to their State in Nature?

[Love-2.1-92] Take notice
of this fundamental Truth.

[Love-2.1-93] Every Thing
that works in Nature and Creature, except Sin, is the working of God in Nature and
Creature. The Creature has nothing else in its Power but the free Use of its Will; and its
free Will hath no other Power, but that of concurring with, or resisting the Working of
God in Nature. The Creature with its free Will can bring nothing into Being, nor make any
Alteration in the working of Nature, it can only change its own State or Place in
the working of Nature, and so feel and find something in its State, that it did not
feel or find before.

[Love-2.1-94] Thus God, in
the Manifestation of himself in and by Nature, sets before every Man Fire
and Water, Life and Death; and Man has no other Power, but that of
entering into and uniting with either of these States, but not the least Power of adding
to, or taking any Thing from them, or of making them to be otherwise than he finds them.

[Love-2.1-95] For this Fire
and Water, this Life and Death, are Nature, and have their unchangeable State in
the uniform Working of God in Nature. And therefore, whatever is done by this Fire
and Water, this Life and Death in any Creature, may, nay, must, in the strictest Truth, be
affirmed of God as done by Him. And consequently, every breathing forth of Fire, or Death,
or Rage, or Curse, wherever it is, or in whatever Creature, must be said, in the Language
of Scripture, to be a provoked Wrath, or fiery Vengeance of God, poured forth
upon the Creature. And yet, every Thing that has been said in Proof of the Wrath of
God shows, and proves to you at the same Time, that it is not a Wrath in the Holy Deity
itself.

[Love-2.1-96] For you see,
as was said above, that God sets before Man Fire and Water, Life and Death;
now these Things are not God, nor existent in the Deity itself; but they are that which
is, and is called Nature, and as they are the only Things set before Man, so Man
can go no further, reach no further, nor find, nor feel, nor be sensible of any Thing
else, but that which is to be felt or found in this Nature, or Fire and Water, Life
and Death, which are set before him. And therefore all that Man can find or feel of the
Wrath and Vengeance of God, can only be in this Fire and this Death, and not
in the Deity itself.

[Love-2.1-97] Theogenes.
Oh Theophilus, you have given me the utmost Satisfaction on this Point, and in a
much better Way than I imagined. I expected to have seen you glossing and criticizing away
the literal Expression of Scriptures that affirm the Wrath of God, in order to make good
your Point, that the Deity is mere Love.

[Love-2.1-98] But you have
done the utmost Justice to the Letter of Scripture, you have established it upon a
firm and solid Foundation, and shown that the Truth of Things require it to be so, and
that there can be no Wrath anywhere, but what is and must be called the Wrath and
Vengeance of God, and yet is only in Nature.

[Love-2.1-99] What you have
here said, seems as if it would clear up many Passages of Scripture that have raised much
Perplexity. Methinks I begin to see how the Hardness of Pharaohs Heart, how Eyes
that see not, and Ears that hear not, may, in the strictest Truth, be said to be of
or from God, though the Deity, in itself, stands in the utmost Contrariety to all
these Things, and in the utmost Impossibility of willing or causing them to
be.

[Love-2.1-100] But I must
not draw you from our present Matter. You have shown, from the Letter of Scripture, that
nothing else is set before Man but Fire and Water, Life and Death; and therefore, no
Possibility of Wrath or Love, Joy or Sorrow, Curse or Happiness to be found by Man, but in
this State of Nature set before him, or into which at his Creation he is introduced
as into a Region of various Sensibilities, where all that he finds or feels, is
truly Gods, but not God himself, who has his supernatural Residence above, and
distinct from every Thing that is Nature, Fire or Water, Life or Death.

[Love-2.1-101] But give me
Leave to mention one Word of a Difficulty that I yet have. You have proved that Wrath,
Rage, Vengeance, &c., can only exist, or be found in Nature, and not in
God; and yet you say, that Nature is nothing else but a Manifestation of the hidden,
invisible Powers of God. But if so, must not that which is in Nature be also in God? How
else could Nature be a Manifestation of God?

[Love-2.1-102] Theophilus.
Nature is a true Manifestation of the hidden, invisible God. But you are to observe, that
Nature, as it is in itself, in its own State, cannot have the least possible
Spark, or Stirring of Wrath, or Curse, or Vengeance in it: But, on the contrary, is from
Eternity to Eternity, a mere Infinity of heavenly Light, Love, Joy, and Glory; and thus it
is a true Manifestation of the hidden Deity, and the greatest of Proofs that the Deity
itself can have no Wrath in it, since Wrath only then begins to be in Nature, when Nature
has lost its first State.

[Love-2.1-103] Theogenes.
This is Answer enough. But now another Thing starts up in my Mind. For if the Deity in
itself, in its supernatural State, is mere Love, and only a Will to all
Goodness, and if Nature in itself is only a Manifestation of this Deity of Love in
heavenly Light and Glory, if neither God nor Nature have, or can give forth Wrath, how
then can Fire and Water, Life and Death be set before Man?
What can they come from, or where can they exist, since God in himself is all Love; and
Nature, which is the Kingdom of Heaven, is an Infinity of Joy, Blessing, and Happiness?

[Love-2.1-104] Theophilus.
I will open to you all this Matter to the Bottom in as few Words as I can.

[Love-2.1-105] Before God
began any Creation, or gave Birth to any Creature, He was only manifested, or known to
himself in his own Glory and Majesty; there was nothing but Himself beholding Himself in
his own Kingdom of Heaven, which was, and is, and ever will be, as unlimited as Himself.

[Love-2.1-106] Nature, as
well as God, is and must be antecedent to all Creature. For as no seeing Eye could
be created, unless there was antecedently to it, a natural Visibility of Things, so
no Creature could come into a Sensibility of any natural Life, unless such a State
of Nature was antecedent to it. For no Creature can begin to be in any World or State
of Nature, but by being created out of that World, or State of Nature, into which it is
brought to have its Life. For to live in any World, is the same Thing as for a Creature to
have all that it is, and has, in and from that World. And, therefore, no
Creature can come into any other Kind of Existence and Life, but such as can be had out
of that World in which it is to live. Neither can there possibly be any other
Difference between created Beings, whether animate or inanimate, but what arises from that
out of which they were created. Seeing then, that before the Existence of the first
Creatures, there was nothing but God and his Kingdom of Heaven, the first Creatures could
receive no other Life but that which was in God, because there was nothing living
but God, nor any other Life but his, nor could they exist in any other Place or
outward State, but the Kingdom of Heaven, because there was none else in Existence; and
therefore, the first Creatures must, of all Necessity, be Divine and heavenly, both in
their inward Life and outward State.

[Love-2.1-107] Theogenes.
Here then, Theophilus, comes my Question. Where is that Fire and Water,
that Life and Death, that is set before the Creature? For as to these first
Creatures, nothing is set before them, nothing is within them, or without them, but God
and the Kingdom of Heaven.

[Love-2.1-108] Theophilus.
You should not have said, There is nothing within them, but God and the Kingdom of
Heaven. For that which is their own creaturely Nature within them, is not God, nor
the Kingdom of Heaven.

[Love-2.1-109] It has been
already proved to your Satisfaction, that no Creature can be Divine, good, and happy, but
by having a two-fold Life united in it. And in this two-fold Life of the Creature,
is Fire and Water, Life and Death unavoidably set before it. For as its Will worketh with
either of these Lives, so will it find either Fire or Water, Life or Death. If its Will
turneth from the Life of God, into the creaturely Life, then it enters into a Sensibility
of that which is meant by Death and Fire, viz., a wrathful Misery. But if the Will
keeps steadily given up to the Deity, then it lives in Possession of that Life and Water,
which was its first, and will be its everlasting heavenly Joy and Happiness.

[Love-2.1-110] But to
explain this Matter something deeper to you, according to the Mystery of all Things
opened by God in his chosen Instrument, Jacob Behmen.

[Love-2.1-111] You know we
have often spoken of eternal Nature, that so sure as there is an eternal God, so
sure is it, that there is an eternal Nature, as universal, as unlimited as God Himself,
and everywhere working where God is, and therefore, everywhere equally existent, as being
his Kingdom of Heaven, or outward Manifestation of the invisible Riches, Powers, and
Glories of the Deity.

[Love-2.1-112] Before, or
without Nature, the Deity is an entire hidden, shut up, unknown, and unknowable Abyss. For
Nature is the only Ground, or Beginning of something; there is neither this
nor that, no Ground for Conception, no Possibility of Distinction or Difference;
there cannot be a Creature to think, nor any Thing to be thought upon, till
Nature is in Existence. For all the Properties of Sensibility and sensible Life, every
Mode and Manner of Existence, all Seeing, Hearing, Tasting, Smelling, Feeling, all
Inclinations, Passions, and Sensations of Joy, Sorrow, Pain, Pleasure, &c., are
not in God, but in Nature. And therefore, God is not knowable, not a Thought can begin
about Him, till He manifests himself in, and through, and by the Existence of Nature; that
is, till there is something that can be seen, understood, distinguished, felt, &c.

[Love-2.1-113] And this eternal
Nature, or the Out-Birth of the Deity, called the Kingdom of Heaven,viz.,
an Infinity, or boundless Opening of the Properties, Powers, Wonders, and Glories of the
hidden Deity, and this not once done, but ever doing, ever standing in the same
Birth, for ever and ever breaking forth and springing up in new Forms and Openings of
the abyssal Deity, in the Powers of Nature. And out of this Ocean of manifested Powers of
Nature, the Will of the Deity, created Hosts of heavenly Beings, full of the heavenly
Wonders introduced into a Participation of the Infinity of God, to live in an eternal
Succession of heavenly Sensations, to see and feel, to taste and find new Forms of Delight
in an inexhaustible Source of ever-changing and never-ceasing Wonders of the Divine Glory.

[Love-2.1-114] Oh Theogenes!
What an Eternity is this, out of which, and for which thy eternal Soul was created? What
little, crawling Things are all that an earthly Ambition can set before Thee? Bear with
Patience for a while the Rags of thy earthly Nature, the Veil and Darkness of Flesh and
Blood, as the Lot of thy Inheritance from Father Adam, but think nothing worth a
Thought, but that which will bring thee back to thy first Glory, and land thee safe in the
Region of Eternity.

[Love-2.1-115] But to
return. Nothing is before this eternal Nature, but the holy, supernatural Deity; and every
Thing that is after it, is Creature, and has all its creaturely Life and State in
it, and from it, either mediately or immediately.

[Love-2.1-116] This eternal
Nature hath seven chief or fountain Properties, that are the Doers, or
Workers of every Thing that is done in it, and can have neither more nor less, because it
is a Birth from, or a Manifestation of the Deity in Nature. For the Perfection of Nature
(as was before said of every Divine and happy Creature) is an Union of two Things,
or is a two-fold State. It is Nature, and it is God manifested in Nature. Now God
is Triune, and Nature is Triune, and hence there arises the Ground of Properties, three
and three; and that which brings those three and three into Union, or manifests the Triune
God in the Triune Nature, is another Property; so that the glorious Manifestation of the
Deity in Nature can have neither more nor less than seven chief or fountain
Properties from which every Thing that is known, found, and felt, in all the Universe of
Nature, in all the Variety of Creatures either in Heaven or on Earth, hath its only Rise,
or Cause, either mediately or immediately.

[Love-2.1-117] Theogenes.
You say, Theophilus, that the Triune Deity is united or manifested in Triune
Nature, and that thence comes the glorious Manifestation of God in seven heavenly
Properties called the Kingdom of Heaven. But how does it appear that this Nature,
antecedently to the Entrance of the Deity into it, is Triune? Or what is this Triune
Nature, before God is supposed to be in Union with it?

[Love-2.1-118] Theophilus.
It is barely a Desire. It neither is, nor has, nor can be any Thing else but a Desire.
For Desire is the only Thing in which the Deity can work and manifest itself; for
God can only come into That which wants and desires him.

[Love-2.1-119] The Deity is
an infinite Plenitude, or Fullness of Riches and Powers, in and from itself; and it is
only want and Desire, that is excluded from It, and can have no Existence in it. And here
lies the true, immutable Distinction between God and Nature, and shows why neither can
ever be changed into the other; it is because God is a universal all; and Nature or Desire
is a universal want, viz., to be filled with God.

[Love-2.1-120] Now as
Nature can be nothing but a Desire, so nothing is in, or done in any natural Way,
but as Desire does it, because Desire is the All of Nature. And, therefore,
there is no Strength or Substance, no Power or Motion, no Cause or Effect in Nature, but
what is in itself a Desire, or the Working and Effect of it.

[Love-2.1-121] This is the
true Origin of Attraction, and all its Powers, in this material World. It gives
Essence and Substance to all that is Matter and the Properties of Matter; it holds
every Element in its created State; and not only Earth and Stones, but Light and Air
and Motion are under its Dominion. From the Centre to the Circumference of this material
System, every Motion, Separation, Union, Vegetation, or Corruption begins no sooner, goes
on no further, than as Attraction Works.

[Love-2.1-122] Take away
Attraction from this material System, and then it has all the Annihilation it can ever
possibly have.

[Love-2.1-123] Whence now
has Attraction this Nature?

[Love-2.1-124] It is solely
from hence; because all Nature from its Eternity, hath been, is, and for ever can
be only a Desire, and hath nothing in it but the Properties of Desire.

[Love-2.1-125] Now
the essential, inseparable Properties of Desire are the three, and can be neither
more nor less; and in this you have that Tri-Unity of Nature which you asked after,
and in which the Triune Deity manifesteth itself. I shall not now prove these three
Properties of the Desire, because I have done it at large, and plainly enough elsewhere. { Way to Divine Knowledge; Spirit of Love, Part I }

[Love-2.1-126] But to go
back now to your Question, Where, or how this Fire and Water, &c.,
can be found, since God is all Love and Goodness, and his Manifestation in Nature
is a mere Kingdom of Heaven. They are to be found in the two-fold State of Heaven,
and the two-fold State of every heavenly Creature.

[Love-2.1-127] For seeing
that the Perfection of Nature, and the Perfection of the intelligent Creature, consists in
one and the same two-fold State, you have here the plainest Ground and Reason why
and how every good and happy and new created Being, must of all Necessity, have Fire and
Water, Life and Death set before it, or put into its Choice.

[Love-2.1-128] Because it
has it in its Power to turn and give up its Will to either of these Lives, it can turn
either to God, or Nature, and therefore must have Life and Death, Fire or Water in its
Choice.

[Love-2.1-129] Now this
two-fold Life, which makes the Perfection of Nature and Creature, is, in other Words,
signified by the seven heavenly Properties of Nature; for when God is manifested in
Nature, all its seven Properties are in a heavenly State.

[Love-2.1-130] But in these
seven Properties, though all heavenly, lieth the Ground of Fire and Water, &c.,
because a Division or Separation can be made in them by the Will of the
Creature. For the three first Properties are as distinct from the four following ones, as
God is distinct from That which wants God. And these three first Properties
are the Essence or whole Being of that Desire, which is, and is called Nature,
or that which wants God.

[Love-2.1-131] When,
therefore, the Will of the Creature turns from God into Nature, it breaks, or
looses the Union of the seven heavenly Properties; because Nature, as distinct from God,
has only the three first Properties in it. And such a Creature, having broken or lost the
Union of the seven Properties, is fallen into the three first, which is meant by Fire
and Death. For when the first three Properties have lost God, or their Union with
the four following ones, then they are mere Nature, which, in its whole Being, is
nothing else but the Strength and Rage of Hunger, an Excess of Want, of Self-Torment, and
Self-Vexation. Surely now, my friend, this Matter is enough explained.

[Love-2.1-132] Theogenes.
Indeed, Theophilus, I am quite satisfied; for by this Account which you have given
of the Ground of Nature, and its true and full Distinction from God, you have
struck a most amazing Light into my Mind.

[Love-2.1-133] For if
Nature is mere Want, and has nothing in it but a Strength of Want, generated
from the three self-tormenting Properties of a Desire, if God is all Love, Joy, and
Happiness, an infinite Plenitude of all Blessings, then the Limits and Bounds of Good and
Evil, of Happiness and Misery, are made as visibly distinct and as certainly to be known,
as the Difference between a Circle and a straight Line.

[Love-2.1-134] To live to Desire,
that is, to Nature, is unavoidably entering into the Region of all Evil and Misery;
because Nature has nothing else in it. But on the other Hand, to die to Desire,
that is, to turn from Nature to God, is to be united with the infinite Source of
all that is good, and blessed, and happy.

[Love-2.1-135] All that I
wanted to know, is now cleared up in the greatest Plainness. And I have no Difficulty
about those passages of Scripture, which speak of the Wrath, and Fury, and Vengeance of
God. Wrath is his, just as all Nature is his, and yet God is mere Love,
that only rules and governs Wrath, as He governs the foaming Waves of the Sea, and the
Madness of Storms and Tempests.

[Love-2.1-136] The
following Propositions are as evidently true, as that two and two are four.

[Love-2.1-137] First,
That God in his holy Deity is as absolutely free from Wrath and Rage, and as
utterly incapable of them as He is of Thickness, Hardness, and Darkness; because
Wrath and Rage belong to nothing else, can exist in nothing else, have Life in nothing
else, but in Thickness, Hardness, and Darkness.

[Love-2.1-138] Secondly,
That all Wrath is Disorder, and can be nowhere but in Nature and Creature, because nothing
else is capable of changing from Right to Wrong.

[Love-2.1-139] Thirdly,
That Wrath can have no Existence even in Nature and Creature, till they have lost their
first Perfection which they had from God, and are become that which they should not
have been.

[Love-2.1-140] Fourthly,
That all the Wrath, and Fury, and Vengeance, that ever did, or can break forth in Nature
and Creature is, according to the strictest Truth, to be called and looked upon as the
Wrath and Vengeance of God, just as the Darkness, as well as the Light is,
and is to be called his.

[Love-2.1-141] Oh! Theophilus,
what a Key have you given me to the right understanding of Scripture!

[Love-2.1-142] For when
Nature and Creature are known to be the only Theater of Evil and Disorder, and the
holy Deity as that governing Love, which wills nothing but the Removal of all Evil from
every Thing, as fast as infinite Wisdom can find Ways of doing it, then whether you read
of the raining of Fire and Brimstone, or only Showers of heavenly Manna
falling upon the Earth, it is only one and the same Love, working in such different
Ways and Diversity of Instruments, as Time, and Place, and Occasion,
had made wise, and good, and beneficial.

[Love-2.1-143] Pharaoh
with his hardened Heart, and St Paul with his Voice from Heaven, though so contrary
to one another, were both of them the chosen Vessels of the same God of Love, because both
miraculously taken out of their own State, and made to do all the Good to a blind
and wicked World, which they were capable of doing.

[Love-2.1-144] And thus,
Sir, are all the Treasures of the Wisdom and Goodness of God, hidden in the Letter of
Scripture, made the Comfort and Delight of my Soul, and every Thing I read turns itself
into a Motive, of loving and adoring the wonderful Working of the Love of God over all the
various Changings of Nature and Creature, till all Evil shall be extinguished, and all
Disorder go back again to its first harmonious State of Perfection.

[Love-2.1-145] Depart from
this Idea of God, as an Infinity of mere Love, Wisdom, and Goodness, and
then every Thing in the System of Scripture, and the System of Nature, only helps the
reasoning Mind to be miserably perplexed, as well with the Mercies, as with the Judgments
of God.

[Love-2.1-146] But when God
is known to be omnipotent Love, that can do nothing but Works of Love, and
that all Nature and Creature are only under the Operation of Love, as a distempered Person
under the Care of a kind and skillful Physician, who seeks nothing but the perfect
Recovery of his Patient, then whatever is done, whether a severe Caustic, or a
pleasant Cordial is ordered, that is, whether because of its Difference, it may
have the different Name of Mercy or Judgment, yet all is equally well done,
because Love is the only Doer of both, and does both, from the same Principle, and
for the same End.

[Love-2.1-147] Theophilus.
Oh Theogenes, Now you are according to your Name, you are born of God. For when
Love is the Triune God that you serve, worship, and adore, the only God, in whom you
desire to live and move and have your Being, then of a Truth God dwelleth in you, and you
in God.

[Love-2.1-148] I shall now
only add this one Word more, to strengthen and confirm your right understanding of all
that is said of the Wrath, or Rage of God in the Scriptures.

[Love-2.1-149] The
Psalmist, you know, saith thus of God, "He giveth forth his Ice like Morsels,
and who is able to abide his Frosts?" Now, Sir, if you know how to explain
this Scripture, and can show how Ice and Frost can truly be ascribed to God,
as His, though absolutely impossible to have any Existence in Him, then you have an
easy and unerring Key, how the Wrath, and Fury, and Vengeance, that anywhere falls upon
any Creature is, and may be truly ascribed to God, as his, though Fury and
Vengeance are as inconsistent with, and as impossible to have any Existence in the Deity,
as lumps of Ice, or the Hardness of intolerable Frosts.

[Love-2.1-150] Now in this
Text, setting forth the Horror of Gods Ice and Frost, you have the
whole Nature of Divine Wrath set before you. Search all the Scriptures, and you will
nowhere find any Wrath of God, but what is bounded in Nature, and is so described,
as to be itself a Proof, that it has no Existence in the holy supernatural Deity.

[Love-2.1-151] Thus says
the Psalmist again, "The Earth trembled and quaked, the very Foundations also of the
Hills shook, and were removed, because he was wroth." No Wrath here but in the
Elements.

[Love-2.1-152] Again,
"There went a Smoke out in his Presence, and a consuming Fire out of his Mouth, so
that Coals were kindled at it. The Springs of Water were seen, and the Foundations of the
round World were discovered at thy chiding, O Lord, at the blasting of the Breath of thy
Displeasure."

[Love-2.1-153] Now every
Working of the Wrath of God, described in Scripture, is strictly of a Piece with this, it
relates to a Wrath solely confined to the Powers and working Properties of Nature, that
lives and moves only in the Elements of the fallen World, and no more reaches the Deity,
than Ice or Frost do.

[Love-2.1-154] The Apostle
saith, "Avenge not yourselves, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I Will repay,
saith the Lord."

[Love-2.1-155] This is
another full Proof, that Wrath or Vengeance is not in the holy Deity itself, as a Quality
of the Divine Mind; for if it was, then Vengeance would belong to every Child of God, that
was truly born of Him, or he could not have the Spirit of his Father, or be perfect as his
Father in Heaven is perfect.

[Love-2.1-156] But if
Vengeance only belongs to God, and can only be so affirmed of Him, as Ice and Frost are His,
and belong to Him, if it has no other Manner of Working, than as when it is said, "He
sent out his Arrows and scattered them, He cast forth Lightnings and destroyed them";
then it is certain, that the Divine Vengeance is only in fallen Nature, and its disordered
Properties, and is no more in the Deity itself, than Hailstones and Coals
of Fire.

[Love-2.1-157] And here you
have the true Reason, why Revenge or Vengeance is not allowed to Man; it is because
Vengeance can only work in the evil, or disordered Properties of fallen Nature. But
Man being Himself a Part of fallen Nature, and subject to its disordered
Properties, is not allowed to work with them, because it would be stirring up Evil in
himself, and that is his Sin of Wrath, or Revenge.

[Love-2.1-158] God
therefore reserves all Vengeance to Himself, not because wrathful Revenge is a Temper or
Quality that can have any Place in the Holy Deity, but because the holy supernatural
Deity, being free from all the Properties of Nature, whence partial Love and Hatred
spring, and being in Himself nothing but an Infinity of Love, Wisdom, and Goodness, He
alone knows how to over-rule the Disorders of Nature, and so to repay Evil with Evil, that
the highest good may be promoted by it.

[Love-2.1-159] To say,
therefore, that Vengeance is to be reserved to God, is only saying in other Words, that
all the Evils in Nature are to be reserved and turned over to the Love of God, to
be healed by his Goodness. And every Act of what is called Divine Vengeance,
recorded in Scripture, may, and ought, with the greatest strictness of Truth, be called an
Act of the Divine Love.

[Love-2.1-160] If Sodom
flames and smokes with stinking Brimstone, it is the Love of God that kindled it, only to
extinguish a more horrible Fire. It was one and the same infinite Love, when it
preserved Noah in the Ark, when it turned Sodom into a burning Lake, and
overwhelmed Pharaoh in the Red Sea. And if God commanded the Waters to destroy the
old World, it was as high an Act of the same infinite Love toward that Chaos, as
when it said to the first Darkness upon the Face of the Deep, "Let there be Light,
and there was Light."

[Love-2.1-161] Not a Word
in all Scripture concerning the Wrath or Vengeance of God but directly teaches you these
two infallible truths. First, that all the Wrath spoken of worketh nowhere but in the
wrathful, disordered Elements and Properties of fallen Nature. Secondly, that all the
Power that God exercises over them, all that he doth at any Time or on any Occasion with
or by them is only and solely the one Work of his unchangeable Love toward Man.

[Love-2.1-162] Just as the
good Physician acts from only one and the same good Will toward his Patient,
when he orders bitter and sour, as when he gives the pleasant Draughts.

[Love-2.1-163] Now, suppose
the good Physician to have such intense Love for you, as to disregard your Aversion toward
them, and to force such Medicines down your Throat, as can alone save your Life; suppose
he should therefore call himself your severe Physician, and declare himself so
rigid toward you, that he would not spare you, nor suffer you, go where
you would, to escape his bitter Draughts, till all Means of your Recovery were
tried, then you would have a true and just, though low Representation of those bitter
Cups, which God in his Wrath forceth fallen Man to drink.

[Love-2.1-164] Now as the
bitter, sour, hot, &c., in the Physicians Draughts, are not
Declarations of any the like Bitterness, Heat, or Sourness in the Spirit of the
Physician that uses them, but are Things quite distinct from the State and Spirit
of his Mind, and only manifest his Care and Skill in the right Use of such
Materials toward the Health of his Patient; so in like Manner, all the Elements of
fallen Nature are only so many outward Materials in the Hands of God, formed and
mixed into Heat and Cold, into fruitful and pestilential Effects, into Serenity of
Seasons, and blasting Tempests, into Means of Health and Sickness, of Plenty and Poverty,
just as the Wisdom and Goodness of Providence sees to be the fittest to deliver Man from
the miserable Malady of his earthly Nature and help him to become heavenly-minded.

[Love-2.1-165] If,
therefore, it would be great Folly to suppose Bitterness, or Heat, &c.,
to be in the Spirit of the Physician, when he gives a hot or bitter Medicine, much greater
Folly surely must it be, to suppose that Wrath, Vengeance, or any pestilential Quality, is
in the Spirit of the holy Deity, when a Wrath, a Vengeance, or Pestilence is stirred up in
the fallen Elements by the Providence of God, as a proper Remedy for the Evil of this, or
that Time or Occasion.

[Love-2.1-166] Hear these
decisive words of Scripture, viz., "Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth."
What a Grossness therefore of Mistake is it to conclude, that Wrath must be in the Deity,
because He chastens and threatens Chastisement, when you have Gods own Word for it,
that nothing but his Love chasteneth? Again, Thus saith the Lord, "I have smitten you
with Blasting and Mildew. Your Vineyards, and your Fig Trees, and your Olive Yards, did
the Palmer-Worm devour," and then the Love that did this makes this Complaint,
"Yet ye have not returned to me." Again, "Pestilence have I sent amongst
you; I have made the Stink of your Tents come up even into your Nostrils," &c.
And then the same Love that did this, that made this Use of the disordered Elements, makes
the same Complaint again, "Yet have ye not returned to me" (Amos 4:9-10).

[Love-2.1-167] Now,
Sir, How is it possible for Words to give stronger Proof, that God is mere Love, that he
has no Will toward fallen Man but to bless him with Works of Love, and this as certainly,
when he turns the Air into a Pestilence, as when he makes the same Air rain down Manna
upon the Earth, since neither the one nor the other are done, but as Time, and Place, and
Occasion, render them the fittest Means to make Man return and adhere to God, that is, to
come out of all the Evil and Misery of his fallen State? What can infinite Love do more,
or what can it do to give greater Proof, that all that it does proceeds from Love? And
here you are to observe, that this is not said from human Conjecture, or any imaginary
Idea of God, but is openly asserted, constantly affirmed, and repeated in the plainest
Letter of Scripture. But this Conversation has been long enough. And I hope we shall meet
again To-morrow.